Nine Inch Nails / Bad Witch

Nine Inch Nails will release a new record, Bad Witch, next month.
This six-track release completes a trilogy that began with 2016’s Not The Actual Events and 2017’s ADD VIOLENCE.

Trent Reznor certainly shares SDE’s passion for physical music. He says “In these times of nearly unlimited access to all the music in the world, we’ve come to appreciate the value and beauty of the physical object“. And while this release is available on vinyl and CD, the former has become a ‘priority’ for the band.

Reznor explains that it’s “not just for the warmth of the sound, but the interaction it demands from the listener. The canvas of artwork, the weight of the record, the smell of the vinyl, the dropping of the needle, the difficulty of skipping tracks, the changing of sides, the secrets hidden within, and having a physical object that exists in the real world with you… all part of the experience and magic“.

Hear, hear to that, although SDE likes vinyl and CDs. Anyway, Bad Witch is out on 22 June 2018.

27 responses to Nine Inch Nails / Bad Witch

The Amazon UK vinyl listing currently does not have any sellers attached, including Amazon themselves. Will keep eye on the page in case pre-order option activates again. May have been a glitch at that surprisingly reduced price, as only slightly dearer than the cd (which can be pre-ordered).

See from Paul’s link that the vinyl is now back at Amazon UK, although much dearer than originally listed. Still, not bad value I suppose, if this is really a mini LP (and some tracks are not 2 minutes long!).

I will have to go back and look again for “Not The Actual Events” on CD. Around the time it was released, I’d just bought a new Windows 1o laptop which was resolutely refusing to play nicely with iTunes, and my classic iPod had just died, so an iTunes download was not option. As I do not have, and do not intend to get a Microsoft account, any Windows-based download was also not an option, I’m sure there was initially no CD available, and I have no interest in going back to vinyl. But I recently found “Add Violence” in Fopp Records in Manchester so I would now like to get “Not The Actual Events” on CD ahead of the release of “Bad Witch”. Having bought every (standard) NIN release since “Pretty Hate Machine” I was disappointed to think that my NIN journey had come to an end, so I”m happy to realise that it hasn’t.

As for tickets for live shows in the UK, I didn’t even try this time round. Its stressful enough getting good tickets for arena shows the day they go on sale (and the last couple of times I’ve seen NIN in arena in the UK they have been far from sold out), I knew I didn’t have a chance for the Royal Festival Hall or Albert Hall shows.

Martin. I have a spare ticket for the Royal Al ert Hall show. If you are interested, and Paul will facilitate an introduction* I would be happy to sell you it at face value.
Reply to this post if you are interested.

Hi Heraldo – thanks very much for your kind offer but I will be on holiday in France on the date of the Albert Hall show, otherwise I would have bitten your hand off for the ticket! Even more cruelly ironically, I will be driving round the outskirts of Paris on my way home on the day NIN play at the Olympia there… Perhaps you could offer the ticket to another SDE regular? Thanks, Martin.

I don’t do vinyl, so I’m glad to see CD’s still available. Where Reznor really loses me is on the live side. Tickets for this tour will only be available at the venue box offices next Saturday. I live nearly two hours away from downtown Memphis. It’s already a bit much to make a four hour round trip for a two hour show, I cannot possibly make a second trip for the same concert. (And the lineup at the Orpheum Theater starts at 6am! I’d have to leave home at 4…) I get that Trent doesn’t like online ticketing because of scalpers, but this whole “Physical World” scheme is just ridiculous. I’ve seen NIN many times in the past two decades, but I’ll be staying home for this one.

Paul have you heard about the “Physical World Presale” for the US tour? Presale tickets will only be available in person at the venues on 5/19 at 8AM. Supposedly to keep tickets from scalpers. As if. Scalpers are probably already setting up their tents! Also, I’ll be damned if I stand on line or camp out for tickets. I didn’t do it back in the day and I’m not about to start now, too old for that nonsense! Fans who travel for shows are especially angry, since they can’t buy multiple venues at once.

Right, and they say any remaining tix will be available online “at a later date”… The Memphis show is at a 3000 seat theater, and NIN haven’t played here in nearly a decade, there won’t be any tix left. Got really excited when Bandsintown sent me a message, “Nine Inch Nails at the Orpheum”, then I read that “Physical World” nonsense…

I’ve been looking forward to this, the first 2 EPs are great and I was worried this may not see the light of day due to Trent potentially getting distracted by soundtracks and other projects.
I bought the vinyl through the official site for £20 the other day, I’m sure this will go up to £30 soon enough as the other 2 did.

As a record shop owner, I agree with Trent’s statements (of course I would). What sort of legacy will the next generation have if everything they ever held dear was beamed in from outer space to antiquated plastic boxes that delivered content and nothing else to the listener? What a boring existence really, and how is one supposed to form any kind of bond with that? Alternately, this new method of delivering “albums” over the course of several EPs is somewhat maddening. It’s admirable that NIN (along with Belle & Sebastian who recently released 3 EPs over the course of two months with one every 30 days) want to spread out their releases (NIN over a more than a year’s time) in order to keep their name prominently placed on the internet in order to remind people they are still releasing new material. Do they feel the need to do this because releasing an album as a whole is now more risky than putting it out in parts due to exposure? Or is it more wise to release full albums in order to create a piece one wishes to immerse themselves in? As the consumer of said material, we have to keep reminding ourselves that another installment of their catalog is on the way, and when played in total, is supposed to bring us some kind of closure or grander statement. In the case of B&S, they historically released EPs quite frequently, so it represents some sort of back to basics approach of hitting the reset button. In the case of NIN, their EPs were more like extended singles anyhow until the Broken EP came out, and have not really released EPs much since. In both cases, if you are playing these on vinyl, it requires more records to be made, more sides to be flipped, and more money spent, but is that at a detriment to the listening experience? Sometimes, if there’s enough material, this process seems to make sense. In other ways, the listener might crave a more streamlined listening experience. Thoughts? Discuss…

I encourage the return of EPs and shorter programmes. One of the early casualties of what we can now see as the death of the physical single was the end of the four track EP due to restrictions from the chart compilers. Now that singles are now a solitary digital file or a £15 RSD nightmare, it’s a good time to bring them back; a 15-25 minute sequence with a trajectory is one of the great lamented art forms and I’m all for their return. Given that people are using digital formats to experiment with longer durations (ie Autechre’s recent “NTS Sessions”, 8 hours in 4 parts), physical formats – especially vinyl – seem an ideal place to work with EP/mini-albums.

As a musician myself – obviously I’m no Trent Reznor – I found that less can mostly be more. And you forget how busy he and Articus have been with soundtracks. I would rather have a solid 5 track EP than a patchy 10 track album.

Anthony, i don’t know you nor your musical ability – i think your self-deprecation my be extreme here. for the record, we already have one trent reznor, and one is what we need. if you also compose music/lyrics, maybe we’ll be fortunate enough to get an EP from you at some point. good luck!